'Our reforms are driving up standards across the country...'

Such was the rhetoric coming out of the DfE yesterday.  Well of course government action has an impact on what happens in schools.  But - please! - standards are actually driven up by teachers, support staff and heads working together in an urgent, ambitious way to ensure all the children and young people in their schools fulfil their potential. 

Michael Gove has done well to challenge us to want more from children; he has rightly contested the appalling tendency of a sizeable minority of the profession to adopt lower expectations for children from difficult backgrounds.  As last week's Wirral governors' conference made clear in Dave Hollomby's excellent presentation, positive expectations have a massively significant impact on performance.  We know we must refuse to expect less from children on free school meals than those who aren't. 

But in the end it will be the work of the professionals in schools who make the real difference, not the actions of Whitehall.  The DfE needs to be careful to build an alliance with the professionals - not alienate them.  We all want the best possible outcomes for our charges.  Let's help each other to achieve them - and do so in a calm professional manner without resorting to posturing and the like. 

Government rhetoric like this will do nothing to create such an alliance.